4 Best Practices to Maximize Your Social Media Reach

September 18, 2018

Hey there, friends! In a continuation of my previous post, “3 Must-Have Social Media Platforms for Authors,” today we’re going to take your social media presence to the next level. Everyone wants to grow their presence and expand their audience, so let’s talk about best practices to maximize your social media reach.

4 Ways to Maximize Your Social Media Reach

Ready to take your author platform to the next level? Here are four things to consider:

Be yourself.

Interact and make friends.

Share relevant content.

Quality over quantity.

Not too crazy, right? Keep reading to see how you can put these tips into practice.

1. Be Yourself

(Unless you can be Batman, then be Batman.) Just kidding. It’s common knowledge that people put their best feet forward on social media, some to dramatic extents. We’ve all seen the overly posed, picture-perfect Instagrammers. And here’s the thing, yes, their picture is pretty. And yes, pretty images might get your post more attention in the short term, but that attention will be over and gone with the next new image your followers scroll past. What keeps them engaged with you is when you’re real.

People appreciate real so much more than picture-perfect and posed.

Your readers and followers likely won’t connect with perfection the way they will with authenticity. So take pretty pictures, share interesting content, but also let your true self shine through.

2. Interact and Make Friends

The best way to expand your audience online? Make friends. Comment on others’ posts and tweets, and make connections. It can be scary to put yourself out there, but in most cases, other people online are warm and friendly. They’re happy to engage. A great place to jump in is on the #PitchWars hashtag over on Twitter right now. (If you’re not familiar with Pitch Wars, read more on that here.) The Pitch Wars community is rich with writers looking to meet new friends and make connections.

The more often you engage with people, the more likely they are to engage back.

So take a deep breath and introduce yourself to someone new—you’ll be well on your way to a wider reach in no time.

3. Share Relevant Content

You’ve probably seen users who only promote their own stuff, and never share the accomplishments of others. I don’t have to tell you how tiresome that gets. (And how fast.) That’s a surefire way to drive away friends and followers. The trick is to balance it out and share industry-specific content from other people. One of your talented writer friends/All the Kissing co-founders have a cover reveal soon? Post about it. Another have a new book releasing? Tweet it. Of course you can share your own links when your book is on sale, or when you sign with an agent. But if you also promote your friends’ work by spreading the love around, people will notice, and will likely return the favor.

4. Quality Over Quantity

Not unlike the publishing world, social media is a long game. Don’t come in with your guns blazing, expecting to rocket to social (or publishing) stardom overnight. What it takes to be successful is consistent, deliberate effort. And if that sounds daunting, just remember you don’t have to use every platform available! In her recent blog post, Social Media for Authors, Lisa Leoni recommended starting with Facebook, since “Facebook allows for the greatest variety in types of content.” So start there. Then venture over to Twitter, or Instagram, or Pinterest, or wherever else your social media-loving heart desires. Pick one or a couple, and just remain consistent.

These best practices are important, but arguably the most important thing is to simply have fun.

Your social media profiles should be a reflection of your personality. If you find something funny or interesting, share it. Interact with people who are doing the same. Be nice, find your people, and grow your community.

When Lindsay isn’t writing stories with magic and kissing, she spends her time devouring as many tacos as she can get her hands on, and wrangling the Hess herd of rescue pets—two cats, one dog, and an almost entirely house-broken husband. She watches muuuuch more Netflix than is good for her productivity, and loves to cook and entertain…but detests cleaning her house. Consider this your warning should you ever come over and encounter a cat/dog hair tumbleweed (or three). It isn’t her fault. Don’t blame her.

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About All The Kissing

Welcome to All The Kissing! We’re a group of romance writers who love our craft and want to give back to the fabulous writing community. Our goal with this site is to share the expertise we’ve gathered throughout our writing journeys. We’ll discuss topics specific to romance, as well as a few other themes near and dear to our hearts.